1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to scales and, more specifically, to a crane scale protective housing designed to prevent damage and minimize torsional forces that can affect the accuracy of the scale. The housing comprises an enclosure having a top and bottom wall and additionally includes front, back and side walls.
A crane boom link compartment extends from the top wall having a boom attachment bore passing through the compartment's front and rear wall with a compartment interior access aperture that serves as receptacle for a scale hanger.
Extending from the bottom of the protective housing is a pair of stabilizers positioned on each side of a large aperture in the bottom wall with each stabilizer having a recess located proximate its base.
Interiorly, the scale protective housing has a scale with a hanger that is positioned within the crane link compartment where the hanger is aligned with the compartment's throughbore so that a connection between the scale protective housing and a crane boom supports both the housing and the scale hanger. Projecting from the base of the scale is a load bearing eye bolt with the eye having the jaw portion of a jaw and eye swivel joint attached to it. The swivel joint extends through a large opening in the bottom of the protective housing and between the stabilizer's recesses where a long bolt passes through the swivel joint eye and projects to the left and right beyond the recesses at the stabilizers bases. The long bolt also passes through a pair of hydraulic rotator attachment plates having a pair of apertures for pinning the jaws of a hydraulic rotator that will support a load.
The scale's protective housing stabilizers and the large bolt serve a critical protective function for the scale by preventing damage that can happen when the scale's load bearing eye bolt is forced back into the scale, which is easily done when the scale is compressed between the crane boom and load.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are other devices which provide for weight scale protection. While these devices may be suitable for the purposes for which they where designed, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.
It is thus desirable to provide a crane scale protective housing that prevents compression of the scale components.
It is further desirable to provide a stop for a crane scale so that when a crane scale having a load hits the ground or other solid surface the force is not directed to the scale components.